Bring Your Armbands, it's Going to get Biblical

     I've always been a little tentative about religion. It's a big question, obviously more so for some than others. Seeing as my grandfather was a minister here in Cornwall, it stands to reason that I've played with the idea previously. However I must admit I currently stand as an avid non-believer of Christianity, and any religion for that matter. Logically I don't think it makes sense, and perhaps that's my downfall; the use of logic. It may be a little bold of me to say, but I think to an extent religion replaces or somewhat distorts logic with faith. 'Tis only a simpleton's thoughts =)
     These ponderments were sparked by a baptism I attended today; the ever-so-altruistic Sophie , a very good friend made from the days of college, decided it was about time to take the plunge (there was certainly a pun intended). Proceedings maintained a high level of interest, although I can't deny in my experience that any Christian service makes the eyelids droop a little. It's difficult to receive a sermon all about loving somebody you don't believe in. It's like attending a lesson in geography when you study sports science; irrelevant and a tad dull. That's not to say that the actual ceremony was boring. Far from it in fact! The point where Sophie had to enter a small pool hidden behind the stage and be dunked was particularly enjoyable. I wish I had been allowed a picture; instead we'll have to do with this one taken later during tea & cakes:

      The newly baptised Soph is central, flanked by Stels (left) and Pols (right).
      After all the church stuff was dealt with we headed down to Gyllyngvase, a beach which boasts as Falmouth's sandy highlight (although some residents may argue that point. It's the biggest, let's say. Most people there thought it'd be a nice idea to swim in the ocean, which we did. And it was cold. I would go on to exaggerate exactly how ludicrously cold it was, but in reality it was typical for Cornwall in April. Sufficed to say it's now about 8 hours later and I still can't feel my nips.
    I will bid farewell, short and sweet. Chances are tomorrow will not produce an entry, as the plan is to attack Truro in as drunken manner as possible and I am partial to a little alchy. Anyway, have a hoot!
     Ollie
(P.S. Apologies for the worst title in the world, it suddenly spawned and I thought it hilarious)

Bunts & Henn

      Two posts in two days, it's a rare occurrence but I've finally managed to pull it off. I win this one unavoidable laziness! I always think it's such a shame that I'm quite a lazy person; if I wasn't I'd do things, loads of them. Not just small things either, but a few big ones too. It'd be great.
     Today's been one of those days that feels very busy, as though one has done a decent amount of activities. While in reality, I've actually done relatively little. After a rather modest breakfast of Weetabix and a yoghurt, I clambered into a train headed for Truro, where a miniature IB (International Baccalaureate) reunion took place in Bunters bar:

Getting drunk at 2pm in the afternoon has never been so good =D  Was nice to see a few of the home chums again, it's weird going for so long at university without seeing any of them. Another "that's life" moment I guess (cue Sinatra).
      After chilling for a good few hours at Bunts, Philip and I headed back on a train, enjoying the scenery and the Wishing Tree on the journey. The Wishing Tree, for all those curious, is a lone tree located in the middle of a fairly large field some 70-80 meters from the train line. I couldn't say exactly at what point it can be found along the journey; Phil & I have always meant to walk or cycle to it but have never found the time. It is custom, whether you are a believer or not, to make a wish when the tree comes into view. Unfortunately, unlike silly traditional wishing scenarios, when a wish is made to the Wishing Tree something bad will happen to balance out the "goodness" of the initial wish, and vice versa if the wish were to be negative. So that's the Wishing Tree.
      My lovely parents had bought tickets to see German comedian Hemming Wehn today at 8pm, so shortly before the specified time we left the Grove in good spirits. Wehn's profile has recently been on the increase, appearing on radio and TV shows such as QI, The Now Show and The News Quiz. He looks a little like this:

He was a class act, although to enjoy his material one had to approach it with an open-minded and humorous attitude, or else there was the potential to be offended; his humour was borderline racist, and he occasionally made sweeping generalisations about cultures and nationalities. However it was all in good faith and frankly I thought it was hilarious. Two Greek girls near the back of the auditorium did not; they stormed out dramatically about 20 minutes in. Clearly Henn's jokes were a little too crass for their liking.
     I'm going to leave it there because I'm tired and require a small sleepy.
     Ollie

A Visit to the Homeland

(Initial Warning - I get quite sentimental when I go home, so beware of mushy-ness)

      Sitting in the familiar dining room drinking hot chocolate never felt better. I've been back in Cornwall now for a whole 24 hours now, and I don't realise how much I miss it until I return. Then it hits like a brick wall. I'm sure this awareness is similarly felt in other situations, as well in other people; we're all here at some point.
     Today I'd like to take up a small portion of your time to promote one of my favourite websites, Musicovery. It's great for discovering a new tune or two, and it caters to an individuals specific mood and preferences. An acoustic heaven. Check it out: http://musicovery.com/
     So the 18:03 Paddington to Truro pulled in at 22:36 last night, and as sad as I was to be leaving dear Finnigan Rayment, I couldn't avoid the inevitable smile that emerged when the parents came into view, faces beaming and arms open. A big shout-out I think is in order to my homies Sian & Geoff, who provide the rest of the family and I constant entertainment as well as food, love and other essential things.
      Today has been explicitly boring in hindsight. I only left the house during moments of vital importance, for example to travel to The Shed. For those who aren't aware, The Shed is a place of awesomeness where hopes and dreams are formed, constructed and destroyed simultaneously. It's the equivalent of a mini-paradise, where all are welcome; the weary traveller, the hard-up Fish-Monger, and just about anyone and everyone. That's not an invite however. One must earn their right to enter The Shed.
     I think the above weirdness illustrates perfectly the mood that has been produced from being inside all day. A shame because we've been having some beautiful weather, all around the country. Bright sunshine in Lancaster, London and Cornwall. Of course rain will occur in the near future; we do reside in the UK after all (for anyone not residing in the UK, my humblest apologies).
     Because I'm in such a good mood it feels only opt to ridicule somebody, and that person is Finn. I took this rather hilarious photo of the front cover of a magazine he may have been involved in (and by may I mean definitely). I didn't have the heart to make it fully public on FB, so here on this most private of blogs it shall be revealed. Enjoy:

Oh Finn, you player..... :D
     Ollie

Just Joshing in Gillangham

      I've been in the sturdy town of Gillingham since Saturday gone, and I must admit I'm surprised. Finn Rayment, the young lad I'm currently residing with, described the place as less than average. Although I've seen a limitless number of prams, and wasn't too impressed with the large war memorial, it is however a quaint, well-structured town that contains all one could possibly ask for (including a 99p store and a McDonalds - a pure dream).

Finn insisted on featuring (and by that I mean I forced him too) in Blog-Time, and therefore we took this lovely snap:

       Actually, here's a better pic, illustrating the great times and amazing sights one can find in Gillingham (lol....):

     The play last week (He Who Gets Slapped, if I haven't said it enough) went exceedingly well. To an extent. Reviews described the acting as top form, however the script and location created an experience biased towards the negative slant. That doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it! I can now juggle quite well, a valuable life skill, and I had the opportunity to wear some awesome dungarees.

      I think the plan is now to perhaps watch The Muppets Christmas Carol, which is in my humble opinion a totally underrated film, and perhaps Xbox it up to the max. Might as well, seeing as I'm on SPRING BREAK!!! WOOO!!! Actually Easter break, not quite as exciting, but there we go.

        Ollie

Outrage and Disgust...and Matt!

       10 days since the last post! An absolute 'mare! The last week, and this week, AND the next week are choc-a-bloc with many interesting and equally uninteresting tasks, the majority taking on the latter quality. At the moment I'm finishing a presentation for tomorrow that'll hopefully go down a storm; exploring the Hindenburg Disaster of 1937 in a ten minute ALL GERMAN presentation, I'm literally pooping bricks. Needs quite a bit of work, so I better get the coffee/red bull/pro plus in as it looks like it might be a late one. On top of this, I have a LICA presentation tomorrow (non-assessed but still integral) and a theatre presentation Friday. Some would call this a mega-overload of presenting to be done, I just consider it a bloody mess. Still, a sincere and enthusiastic approach should be maintained, so that's what I'm going for.
      My main tool for procrastination currently is the wonderful website Stumble Upon, on which one has the opportunity to trawl through a variety of random websites, some engaging, others useful, and a few just plain stupid. I recommend you take some time to check it out, you can discover some pretty interesting stuff (plus it's customized to suit one's personal interest): http://www.stumbleupon.com/
      The premier of He Who Gets Slapped is rapidly advancing. Sunday 18th is our first performance, and we continue nightly till Tuesday 20th. I'm wearing the make-up as I write, and, as I've touched on before, it looks as though a rainbow has vomited on my face. Even so spirits are high for me and in the entire cast, and final preparations are being carried out to polish it off. Here's a snap of me and partner-in-crime Jack Heaton in our wonderful dung's:

      Some bad news has arisen from the depths of LICA (Lancaster Institute for Contemporary Arts) this week, which has startled and angered fellow course-mates and I. The university, in order to receive more funding, intends to merge all LICA degree courses (theatre, art, film, music, etc) into a simpler system as of the next academic year. This means a few things will change:
 - The highlight being when we graduate we will not receive a BA honours in theatre studies, but a much less impressive "LICA degree", exclusive to Lancaster. Job opportunities plummet.
 - Non-theatre students will be allowed to enrol on to theatre modules, and vice versa. Due to limited spaces in each module, this potentially means a student will be forced to take a module that is not in any way related to their major degree; for example, if I was to apply to study dance theatre (heaven forbid) and it was full, I might be ushered into The History of Fine Art, a module that, while maintains a quite glamorous history and aesthetic, does not personally appeal to this particular individual.
 - The last major change would be the disappearance of a few quite attractive modules; TV drama is to be cut, contemporary dance theatre would be made a half module and a completely theoretical module (Ludicrous!), and also some other mental adjustments.
      Obviously theatre students and hopefully students under other LICA departments are kicking up a fuss. We're meeting with the LICA convenor next Wednesday (the last week of term 2) to discuss the changes and press our dissatisfaction. Theatre students have also discussed in an emergency meeting on Tuesday that we are willing to take this to the highest level of the university hierarchy and, if needs be, go even further.
      I digress, apologies, as you can tell this has hit hard and is worrying a great deal of students. In other news, there are plans for a certain Matthew Stephens to stay with me this Saturday, which should manifest a lovely day or two. Not sure what I'm going to do with him; I'm sure he can entertain himself to an extent, unfortunately the work pile has been built rather high for the coming weekend. Hopefully when faithful bro Tom hears of our larks and hilarious anecdotes he will not be too overcome with envy.
      Now, unfortunately, I must proceed with presentation plans and other such menial tasks. I hope everyone is well, I send out my love.
Ollie

Another Wonderful Weekend

      Another 6 hours of rehearsal in today for the upcoming spectacle that is He Who Gets Slapped. It's looking better every time we meet, however there is only a week and a half left till launch and the second act hasn't been blocked. I would compare this to an apple pie with no apple - extremely worrying. Pictured is the legend himself, Mr. Jack Heaton, with whom, along with myself, the clown double-act is complete. He's studies theatre with me, and fortune seems to shine on us, as we've been placed in the same devising group as well. I think he's beginning to become tired of my frequent delivery of poor quality jokes and erratically energetic behaviour; he certainly has to put up with a lot. Saying that, he seems to be handling the curse of Ollie quite expertly. In all seriousness it's quite a fortune set of circumstances; we have a similar sense of humour and are both out looking for the "hunnies" as he likes to comically phrase it. To summarise, the rehearsal was long and gruelling, but fun. There were juggling balls present, and activities involving those pretty much manifested mine and Jack's background performing.

      I auditioned for a part in a short film a few weeks back; a module one can take in later years in theatre is TV drama (or something along those lines), and they required actors, as most films do. Yesterday we took an early bus into town at 9.15am in order to shoot one of the big scenes. I play Nick, a confident young detective constable who, along with his loathed soon-to-be-partner, attempts to bust Marco, a quite major drug baron. It's been hilariously good fun to do, in fact it's inspired me to take it next year. However there are rumours circling that the module's being cut next year, which naturally we're all terribly disappointed about. The weirdest thing about yesterday's filming sesh was the weather; the morning was rainy and very cloudy, yet  around 10.30/11am the sun decided to spectacularly burst through for the rest of the day. The footage must look quite odd - one moment there's rain and a fairly dark, misty feeling, the next bright sunshine. Hopefully during post-shoot editing that'll be easily sorted out. This picture was a section I wasn't required for, so I whacked out my camera to capture some nostalgic shots:

      I'm off to sleep now, since tomorrow should be a reasonably tortuous day: 2 hours of devising rehearsal, 2 hours of film shooting, 2 lectures followed by another 4 glorious hours of LUTG (Lancaster University Theatre Group) rehearsal - Splendid! Before I leave I should mention that I've been graciously allowed into the LICA Ambassador scheme, which I'll explain more about next time. Essentially, it means I'm working for the Nuffield theatre (which is on campus) and through ushering and helping with publicity I get to see certain musical/dance/theatre events for free! Fantastic stuff.

       Night!

       Ollie

      This lovely snap was taken a few days ago starring Jack (left), Alex (centre) and of course Ollie (right). It's being used on publicity posters for the play He Who Got Slapped, which is on only 2 weeks from today!! AH!! Luckily I acquired a part with only minimal lines, so not much to stuff in the noggin, but I'm still nervous; and I HATE make-up/face-paint. Always have, always will. I don't appreciate the way it feels, sitting there stewing like a warm casserole. I don't understand how the fairer gender put up with it.
     Just got back from the gym, feeling quite positive about life due to this. However I have German writing seminar work for tomorrow, so that's a minor downer. Also the only food options that are realistically available are toast or tuna pasta. And when I say tuna pasta, I literally mean a can of tuna and a bag of pasta. Yum. Managed to get to my first German grammer lecture of the term yesterday; before we were divided into devising groups in theatre, theatre lectures clashed with German grammer lectures, and grammer is easier to catch up with than theatre ideology (to an extent); therefore I missed about 6 grammer lectures. Nevermind! I've been keeping up with classwork (mostly) and homework assignments, so there shouldn't be too much to worry about. I think I've fully decided to not do German next year - I enjoy it, but I feel like to do really well I'd need to fully devote myself to it, it's much more work than one thinks.
      I have my snowboards propped up beside the window, and it makes me sad to look at them. I want to go boarding again! The trip at Christmas was amazing, I guess I haven't told anybody at home about it since I came from Tignes straight back to university. I'll talk more about that next time.
     Right now I'm going to make my tuna pasta, and it's going to be GREAT. Probably won't post tomorrow seeing as it's a theatre colleague's birthday and therefore, in traditional format, I will take the bus into the centre of town and get trollied. Apologies Sian, forgive me :D
LOVE,
Ollie xxx

Better late than Never

      A simple picture I thought to begin with, so as not to start too dramatically only to fall down by the way-side after only a few posts; simply the view from my room's window on one of those extremely rare sunny days in Lancaster:

      Primarily I decided to start up the old "blogathon" again because I feel bad; I'm annoyed at myself for not contacting friends and family enough, and not just that, but I feel nobody knows what I really get up to here in Lancs. Therefore you will be educated! And if that doesn't appeal, you could just skim through and highlight words that look like they should be rude. That's fun to do in any text.
      So I'm over half-way through my first year in university education. It's turned out pretty much how I expected really; plenty of procrastination, dancing around being theatrical and drinking. To add insult to injury, I'm not really proud of any of them (except perhaps the dancing around, the activity demands a lot of effort).
      In theatre we've been divided into practical groups to initiate and create the end of year devised performances. Basically more dancing until we come up with something substantial, followed by putting that on stage with a few colourful lights and some realistic explosion sounds - Voilà! Theatre! In all seriousness however it seems to be progressing well; we've only had two meetings and we've begun formulating an idea surrounding the theme of surveillance and conspiracy. Unfortunately it's been decided that Shakespeare's Hamlet will be used to draw inspiration from. While the text is relevant, it has got to the point in my educational career where maybe too much of Mr. Shakey has been touched upon. However we're also using techniques squelched from the Wooster Group, a more contemporary company who frequently associate themselves with incorporating media into live theatre. Which will be nice.
      I've only recently returned from a rehearsal of He Who Gets Slapped, a play in which, to both my dismay and joy, I get to wear a vast amount of face paint. I've never liked the stuff, and although arguably in the wonderful world of acting the use of make-up is to be encouraged, I'm afraid I won't ever enjoy the experience of my face with smothered with various paints, gloops or powders. frankly, it just doesn't sit well. I will try to gather some photos from today's session; they're hilarious.
     Apart from that minor inconvenience everything is fine. I'm running incredibly low on food but then who isn't, and the mould behind my desk continues to invade the edges of my carpet; the porter will be notified, and nothing will be done - classic Ash House.
      To all concerned, thanks for reading, will try my bestest to keep this blog updated as much as possible, although with my incredibly busy schedule it'll be increasingly difficult to find the tim....... HA, could not finish that sentence. I've all the time in the world, however laziness is the curse of us all.
      Bye!
      Ollie x